


Escape Hatch

by wynnebat



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M/M, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 14:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5459336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've been set loose upon the world, and for all that they love the job, sometimes the job doesn't love them back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escape Hatch

**Author's Note:**

> For [Trope Bingo](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/) round 6, prompt: job-related trauma.

They've been set loose upon the world, all three of them, and for all that they love the job, sometimes the job doesn't love them back. Eliot gets shot, Hardison has to drop his equipment into one of the Great Lakes, and Parker is running on so little sleep that she doesn't remember which lake it is until she sees a sign.

She's their leader and she's supposed to know better, but as she clutches to them in a small motel room with one big bed, she's not Nate. She's just Parker.

"We won," she tells herself, tells them. But this time, it was a pyrrhic victory at best. Hardison and Eliot don't blame her. They never do. She asked Nate what to do about it once, and he hadn't had an answer. Or, rather, he had a Nate-answer, and Parker doesn't think drinking would help her very much.

Nate might've done better, she thinks, but doesn't say.

On one side, Hardison's holding her hand, and he's kissing her neck and saying, "We'll win better, next time."

Eliot doesn't kiss her, but his words are enough. "Sleep, then revenge."

And then... "Jane Goodman, do you think?" Jane Goodman is an anthropologist with a trust fund but no ambition. She hired a couple guys to do a dig with her in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Montana, and liked it so much she bought a house there. She has a devoted husband and a cousin.

Parker watches them carefully, because sometimes they lie. None of them really mean to, but they're thieves on a team, and half the times the lies seep through. Sometimes, they just want to protect each other, and lying's a terrible strategy—seven months since Nate and Sophie have left, Parker knows all about terrible strategies—but they're all terribly human.

"Nah, girl, I think it's a Brooklyn Monroe time," Hardison replies. Brooklyn Monroe lives in Brooklyn and hates her name, which her two married best friends make fun of on occasion.

"I don't need a break," Eliot grumbles, and that's the kind of lie Parker doesn't mind, because it's as thin as a leaf blowing in the wind. Eliot knows it, too, and says, "Only if Brooklyn Monroe moves to Cleveland. Got a couple people to visit."

"Cooking friends?" Hardison asks.

"One of them owns a restaurant, but it's nothing special."

"Prefer yours anyway."

"You're just buttering me up after stealing my sandwich last week."

"That was me," Parker clarifies.

Eliot huffs, but his fingers are running through her hair. And there had been two sandwiches; she'd been nice enough to leave Eliot's alone. It's not stealing, really.

Despite the case, Parker sneaks into the dreamworld easily, with Hardison and Eliot at her sides. They'll never quit Leverage. It's their lives. But sometimes, when it all gets too much, they take on other lives for a little bit. The identities are always different, but there's always one thing in common: there's always room for three.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
